I’m a sex worker in love with a wonderful, kind, but very weak man who, after years and several children with an abusive, mentally ill wife is financially fucked and legally cornered by a Kafkaesque divorce court system. Jail might be in his future, if not suicide, and in the meantime court-ordered child support and other payments have left him literally unable to afford rent so he’s now homeless. I feel like I will have to decide to leave him because he can’t emotionally or financially survive the abuse by his ex and the court, and I can’t be in relationship with a broken person who feels entitled to a reality that will not come. Any advice would be appreciated.
Since he has allowed this to go on for far too long, whatever chance he might have had at the beginning has long since gone down the toilet; the only way he’s going to carve out even the most basic protection is to hire a top-notch divorce lawyer who will fight his ex’s no-holds-barred assaults with even more ruthless assaults. What could such a lawyer win for him? I have no idea, but at this point, he will be doing well to be left with some money to live on and protection from further spurious accusations. Of course, if he doesn’t even have enough money to pay rent, he can’t afford a lawyer. And that means you need to decide – I’m sorry, but there’s no nice way to say this – if this relationship is worth your emotional and financial investment. I believe you when you say that he’s a wonderful man, and that you love him. But I also agree with you that he’s weak, and has not fought this to win but to “roll over”. From what you describe in your very detailed letter, he made a long succession of mistakes in every single interaction with his ex from the very beginning, starting with his decision to fuck her in the first place. Does that mean he “deserves” what has happened to him? Absolutely fucking not. And yet, here we are. And you need to make decisions based in current reality, not romantic fantasies or might-have-beens or “if I won the lottery”. If you stay with this man you will be supporting him until his youngest child is out of university, and maybe even longer than that. Any legal fees will need to come from you. His housing and support will come from you. Whatever malicious fees the court levies on him? You. And he’ll expect you to provide all the usual emotional and practical labor as well, because beside being a man he’s too devastated to provide emotional support even to himself, much less you. I hear that you love him and he’s wonderful, but is whatever he gives you enough to justify that cost? He is already draining you like a vampire, emotionally, financially, sexually and even physically, and that will not stop unless you stop it.
I’m sorry, honey, I know this is incredibly painful, and I wish I had some good news or happy thoughts for you. The legal system of this country is designed to grind people into pulp, and your boyfriend obediently jumped into that machine on the orders of a dangerously unhinged woman. So now the only thing left for you to decide is whether to risk getting sucked in yourself by reaching into the gears on the probably-vain hope of pulling him out; to just stand there and be splattered by blood and gore as the machine does its horrifying work; or to wash your hands of the whole thing.
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